“At the end of the day the taxpayer pays for it, and what I’m most
excited for is you get to make a choice and you get to be very informed
about how these things make a difference,” said Dionne Mack, deputy city
manager for public safety.

Yeah! We get to make a choice and we get to be very informed about it!

In complete contrast to the way things usually get done by the City.

El Paso’s already running out of taxpayers, and eventually they’ll run out of taxpayers’ money.

El Paso’s money woes are compounded by the Quality of Life bonds that the city foisted on us in 2012. The real cost of those bonds are the opportunity costs they entailed. That half a billion dollars could have been spent for something worthwhile, like streets or education. Remember, the City still fighting to get that arena nobody wants and nobody needs.

And now they’re asking for another billion bucks. (With interest it’ll be closer to $2 billion.)

Well, I can’t admire anything about it. Don’t any of these people actually live in the same world as the rest of us? You know, the people they are supposed to be representing? Do they live their own lives like this? When I have a need or just a desire for something expensive that I can’t pay for, I either save for it, learn to live without, find an alternative that doesn’t cost so much, or consider a short term loan. Do these people routinely go into serious personal debt, thinking that they can just pass the payments along to someone else? This shit has got to stop! The City has an annual budget that is supposed to take into consideration the necessary maintenance on City properties, and the ongoing operations of City Services. Those things should never have been put off in favor of all the things that we now owe for but never needed! I only wish I could afford to relocate, but at my age it just isn’t prudent.

The City “leadership” has to figure out the difference between NEED and WANT. Does El Paso Need an empty trolley? Do they Need an arena that will compete with UTEP? Do they Need more hotels downtown? Does El Paso need paved roads, money spent on education, affordable housing….did El Paso need to have Larry Romero’s street paved? Whatever happened to the speed bumps they placed in front of Cathedral?

City and County expenses need to be of a scale to fit the assessed market valuations of the community. These valuations should not be arbitrarily increased when the market doesn’t support it. That is called “cooking the books“.

Of course deficit spending for targeted investment is an acceptable once in a while strategy. Maybe it should be reserved for emergencies only. When the normal becomes deficit spending, in an area that’s already resource scarce, with incomes below the national average, then the whole ball of wax starts to look a bit unsustainable and precarious.